The Loom

As part of the Picturing Climate exhibition and public programme at Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, Sajovic build a ground floor loom and through a participatory performative action, wove a piece.

Taking as inspiration and point of reference the ground floor looms used by the Bani Hamida Women’s collective, a social enterprise project in Jordan, this loom was designed by Eva Sajovic in collaboration with artist and weaver Raisa Kabir. The Bani Hamida women build simple looms in their backyards which provides them with an accessible form of work and income.

The loom was built with found and carefully sourced materials from ethical and local sources, in the hope of facilitating a conversation about what sustainability means, what skills we need for the future and what materials to use in a world of climate degradation and breakdown.

This is the starting point to a longer, UK wide project that will explore crafting, making and sharing as a form of subversion, countering the professionalization and deskilling of society and precarious dependence on the ready-made consumables. Promoting sustainable ways of living by understanding where materials come from, and what it takes (labour, skill, time) to shape them into products will create an opportunity for critical reflection on the political economy of production and consumption, and serve as a methodology for engaged, affective and effective social action.

Artists are planning to make this project available to various communities around the UK. By involving them in growing hemp and jute then spinning it into yarn and weaving into cloth, the participants will gain knowledge of sustainable ways of growing and producing and share skills they are interested in developing.

To extend this performative exhibit the following event took place on the 1 December, 14.30 – 15.30: DECONSTRUCTING COMPUTERS, LIBERATING TECHNOLOGIES: WEAVING IN TIMES OF CRISIS

The performative discussion, facilitated by Eva Sajovic, considers the relationship between the loom and computer; loom being a precursor to early computer technology that uses separate decks of punched cards to make what we call a ‘programme’. It will use this relationship as a trope for exploring the ecological and psychological impacts of digital technologies and infrastructures on human beings and nature.

• https://www.picturingclimate.net/